Friday's Forgotten Books, May 4, 2018

TICKET TO RIDE

This was the first Sam McCain book I read and what a pleasure it was. All of Ed Gorman's novels are a treat to read. You enter a world that is mostly filled with benevolent, well-drawn non-stereotypical characters.
And then Ed throws in the monkey wrenches that set that peaceful Iowa world on its ear. There is murder and mayhem but you are never offended. We have a gentleman here.
And then he sets things right in a humane and compelling way.

Especially fun for me were the sixties touchstones-and I really admired the way he caught it on the cusp of a new era-and captured it without overplaying its markers. Sam McCain feels young, vibrant and on the edge of adulthood himself.

What I liked most about Ed's books is his obvious admiration and enjoyment of women. This is unusual in the books I read. His women are rarely shrews or nags or harpies. All of them seem like a romance or an adventure is just within their grasp--young and old.

My very favorite Gorman book is SLEEPING DOGS, but this is right up there. They all are.

Mark Baker, A DARKNESS MORE THAN NIGHT, Michael Connelly
Yvette Banek, CARDS ON THE TABLE, Agatha Christie
CrossExaminingCrime, MURDER ISN'T EASY, Richard Hull
Martin Edwards, PRINTER'S DEVIL, Clemence Dana and Helen Simpson
Bev Hankins, TERROR IN TOWN  Edward Ronns
Richard Horton, BORN LEADER, J.T. McIntosh
George Kelley, The Dark Angel: The Complete Tales of Jules de Grandin, Volume Three By Seabury Quinn
Margot Kinberg, FINDING NOUF, Zoe Ferraris
Rob Kitchin, WHITE BUTTERFLY, Walter Mosley; THE UNEXPECTED INHERITANCE OF INSPECTOR CHOPRA, Vaseem Khan
B.V. Lawson, MALCOLM SAGE, DETECTIVE 
Evan Lewis, GENE AUTRY GOES TO THE CIRCUS
Steve Lewis, COLD CLEWS, Erle Stanley Gardner
Todd Mason, SCRIBNERS MAGAZINE, Winter 89
John F. Norris, ALIAS BASIL WILLING, Helen McCloy
Matt Paust, THIRTY-NINE STEPS, John Buchan
James Reasoner, HELL IN PARADISE VALLEY, Barry Cord
Richard Robinson, What I Read, Part 2
Gerard Saylor, MURDER NEVER KNOWS, Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins
Kevin Tipple, EMPTY EVER AFTER, Reed Farrel Coleman
TomCat, MR. MONK IS MISERABLE, Lee Goldbert
TracyK, MALICE AFORETHOUGHT, Frances Iles